Monday, June 11, 2007

Best NL pitchers hunt here

A recent Sports Illustrated profile on San Diego Padres pitching ace Jake Peavy noted that Peavy and Astros' ace Roy Oswalt have a special bond with Illinois.

As if those setbacks weren't enough, there is this too: He is, without corrective lenses, nearly blind. "Can't see a lick," confirms Houston Astros ace Roy Oswalt, one of Peavy's closest pals. Oswalt found this out two winters ago when he and Peavy, both avid hunters, were navigating through Pike County in western Illinois on their way to a weekend in the woods chasing white-tailed deer. Oswalt would steal glances at Peavy, who was hunched over the wheel and squinting into the darkness as his truck swerved unnervingly along the winding roads. "I made him pull over, and I drove," says Oswalt. "Then -- and I hadn't been driving more than 20 minutes -- I hit a deer."

It looks like Peavy and Oswalt might become Illinois landowners.

Peavy can't imagine how life could get any better. He is the top dog of arguably the best staff in baseball -- San Diego's 2.94 ERA at week's end was 40 points lower than that of any other major league club -- and the Padres, through Sunday, were tied with the Dodgers atop the hypercompetitive National League West. Back home in Alabama, he and Katie are building, on 200 acres of land they recently purchased, a new cabin along a beautiful man-made lake. He and Oswalt are also talking about buying a chunk of land in Illinois on which they can chase the region's famed whitetail.